On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:12:17 -0800, J. Vahid Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Gilberto, > You asked: > "Do you know where those other numbers come from? I think the only > number I've heard of was 10 because in Genesis when Abraham was > haggling with God to spare Sodom, God said that if there were 10 > righteous men in Sodom he wouldn't have destroyed it." > > Babylonian Talmud, tractate Hullin, 92a: "R. Yohanan said, 'There exist > forty-five saints who sustain the world..." > > Thirty-six became the standard enumeration of the tzaddikim from early > medieval Kabbalistic sources on into modern Hasidic texts. On the > thirty-six saints traditions, see Scholem's "The Tradition of the > Thirty-six Hidden Just Men," in his _Messianic Idea in Judaism_, pp. > 251-6. Paul Fenton has a paper exploring these traditions and comparing > them with analogs in medieval Islamic texts: "The Hierarchy of Saints in > Jewish and Islamic Mysticism," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society > 10 (1991): 12-34.
Thanks. I'll try to follow up on that. I think I have a book or two with stuff on kabbalah floating around in my room somewhere too. Maybe they might have something too. Peace Gilberto "My people are hydroponic" __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
